April 20

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 20, 1776).

“OBSERVATIONS on the RECONCILIATION of GREAT-BRITAIN and the COLONIES … ARGUMENTS for and against.”

As colonizers marked the first anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1776, they debated the purpose of the war.  When it began, most wanted a redress of grievances within the imperial system, just as they had sought in response to the Stamp Act in 1765 and 1766 and the Townshend Acts in the late 1760s.  Yet as the war continued, more and more colonizers determined that it was no longer possible nor desirable to return to their position within the British Empire before the imperial crisis began.  The publication and widespread dissemination of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in January 1776 convinced many readers to support declaring independence.

Robert Bell, the bold printer who published the first edition of Common Sense, contributed to the debate by printing, advertising, and selling several political pamphlets that expressed a range of views.  For instance, he published and sold “PLAIN TRUTH … containing Remarks on a late Pamphlet intituled COMMON SENSE,” a pamphlet that argued that “permanent Liberty, and true Happiness can only be obtained by Reconciliation” with Great Britain.  For readers interested in a pamphlet that considered both sides of the issue, Bell also marketed “OBSERVATIONS on the RECONCILIATION of GREAT-BRITAIN and the COLONIES.  In which are exhibited ARGUMENTS for and against that MEASURE.  By a FRIEND of AMERICAN LIBERTY.”

When Bell’s advertisement for that pamphlet appeared in the April 20, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, much of the other content argued against reconciliation.  The column next to Bell’s advertisement featured a list of seven “Reasons for a DECLARATION of the INDEPENDANCE of the American Colonies” submitted by a reader.  On the final page, another item submitted by a reader outlined “The PROGRESS of an American’s CREED for obtaining a redress of grievances, and brining about a reconciliation with Great-Britain.”  That timeline mocked colonizers who consistently advocated for one more effort to restore the colonies’ relationship with George III and Parliament.  It started with the rationale given in September 1774, “I believe in the efficacy of the union of the colonies,” and continued with other milestones, including “I believe in the efficacy of Lord Chatham’s speech, and Mr. Wilke’s opposition to the court,” invoking support from politicians in Britain, in January 1775, “I believe in the efficacy of a second petition to the King,” now known as the Olive Branch Petition, in July 1775, and “I believe in the efficacy of the reduction of Chamblee, St. John’s and Montreal,” referring to the invasion of Canada, in November 1775.  The final item, dated March and April 1776, stated, “I believe in the efficacy of COMMISSIONERS coming over to redress all our grievances, and to bring about a constitutional reconciliation with Great-Britain.”  Colonizers who advocated for reconciliation, this litany suggested, snatched at false hope as they made rationalization after rationalization for not declaring independence.  No matter the political or military measures that should have worked to the colonies’ advantage, they were never enough to get the king and Parliament to reach a satisfactory settlement.  It was time to stop generating new excuses and insisting that their opponents would finally see the light and negotiate in good faith.  The correspondents who submitted these items to the Pennsylvania Evening Post did not have much use for the arguments for reconciliation presented in latest pamphlet that came off Bell’s press.

Slavery Advertisements Published April 20, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Pennsylvania Ledger (April 20, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 20, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 20, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 20, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 20, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 20, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published April 20, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Providence Gazette (April 20, 1776).

April 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Essex Journal (April 19, 1776).

“By the hundred[,] dozen or single, with good allowance to those who take a quantity.  COMMON SENSE.”

One year after the battles at Lexington and Concord that started the Revolutionary War, the first advertisement for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense appeared in the Essex Journal and New-Hampshire Packet.  John Mycall, the printer of that newspaper, prepared a local edition in Newburyport, Massachusetts, just as printers in many other cities and towns in Pennsylvania, New York, and New England had done in the three months since Robert Bell made the first edition available in Philadelphia.

This newest edition was not yet ready for sale.  Instead, Mycall announced that it was “Now in the press, and will be published in about a fortnight.”  He encouraged readers to anticipate its publication, priming the pump for distributing the popular political pamphlet within the next couple of weeks.  His advertisement replicated many that appeared in other newspapers.  He gave the title of the pamphlet, provided an overview of its contents by listing the subject headings, and gave two lines from the poem “Liberty” by Scottish poet James Thompson.  He also described his edition as “A NEW EDITION, with several Additions in the Body of the Work To which is added an APPENDIX; together with an Address to the People called QUAKERS.”  That suggested that Mycall drew the Newburyport edition from one of the expanded editions that Paine collaborated with William Bradford and Thomas Bradford in publishing in Philadelphia after the author parted ways with Bell, though the printer of the first edition pirated that bonus content when he published unauthorized subsequent editions.  A nota bene in Mycall’s advertisement, “The new Addition here given increases the Work upwards of one Third,” echoed the Bradfords’ advertisements.

To increase sales and disseminate the pamphlet widely, Mycall enlisted a local agent in Andover, and both of them sold copies “by the hundred[,] dozen or single, with good allowance to those who take a quantity.”  In other words, he gave a discount to customers who bought multiple copies.  Those who purchased a dozen may have distributed them to friends, while those who purchased “by the hundred” likely planned to sell them retail in their own shops.  The discount for volume allowed them to set competitive prices while turning a profit.  In addition, Mycall proclaimed that “the price will be as low as it can Possibly be Afforded, in Order to put so valuable a Piece into the Hands of the Poor, as well as the Rich.”  Such efforts likely helped Common Sense become the most widely read political pamphlet published in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.

Slavery Advertisements Published April 19, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Connecticut Gazette (April 19, 1776).

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Connecticut Gazette (April 19, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 19, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 19, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 19, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 19, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 19, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published April 19, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Connecticut Gazette (April 19, 1776).

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Essex Journal (April 19, 1776).

April 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New-York Journal (April 18, 1776).

“The Sign of the THREE SUGAR LOAVES.”

George Webster, a grocer, kept shop “At the Sign of the THREE SUGAR LOAVES, in Leary-street,” in New York during the era of the American Revolution.  In an advertisement in the April 18, 1776, edition of the New-York Journal, he listed a variety of items, including “Best green citron, West-India sweet meats and pickles, a quantity of cloves, Ground ginger and Cayanne pepper, French and Italian olives and capers, [and] anchovies of a peculiar quality.”  He also stocked some housewares, such as “China bowls of different sizes, Chinas cups and saucers of various colours and sizes, with or without handles, [and] A few sets of tea table china complete, which he will sell lower than any in town by ten shillings on the set.”  That was a bargain for a tea seat, though colonizers were supposedly abstaining from drinking tea in protest of the Intolerable Acts.

The “Sign of the THREE SUGAR LOAVES” must have been a familiar sight for many residents of New York.  It had marked Webster’s location on Leary Street for several years.  In addition, the grocer commissioned a woodcut that depicted his sign to adorn some of his newspaper advertisements.  It featured a taller sugar loaf in the center, flanked by two shorter sugar loaves, all enclosed in a thin border with scalloped corners.  It may have replicated the sign that marked Webster’s location, creating a visual identity or brand through the consistency.  Webster used the woodcut in his advertisements in the fall of 1772 and then discontinued it for a few years before using it again in his advertisements in the spring of 1776.  Perhaps he retrieved it from the printing office and tucked it away at his shop, though he could have left it in the care of the printer during that time.  After all, the image was so tied to his business that it would not have been of much use to other advertisers.  Unlike some entrepreneurs who commissioned woodcuts and advertised in multiple newspapers, Webster did not collect his woodcut from one printing office and deliver it to another.  His advertisements in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer in the fall of 1773 featured a decorative border and gave his location as “the THREE SUGAR LOAVES, In LEARY-STREET,” but did not include the woodcut.  When he revived the image, it helped distinguish his advertisement from others in the New-York Journal.  In the April 18 edition for instance, only one other advertisement included a woodcut.  A stock image of a horse, a fraction of the size of Webster’s woodcut, appeared in an advertisement offering the stud services of True Briton.  The “Sign of the THREE SUGAR LOAVES” at the top of Webster’s advertisement no doubt helped draw attention to it.

Slavery Advertisements Published April 18, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

New-York Journal (April 18, 1776).

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New-York Journal (April 18, 1776).

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New-York Journal (April 18, 1776).

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New York Packet (April 18, 1776).

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New York Packet (April 18, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 18, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published April 18, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

New York Packet (April 18, 1776).

April 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Journal (April 17, 1776).

“Manufactured at BATSTO FURNACE.”

For months, an advertisement for goods “Manufactured at BATSTO FURNACE, In West-New-Jersey,” ran in the Pennsylvania Journal.  The notice advised prospective customers that they could select from among a “GREAT variety of iron pots, kettles, Dutch ovens, and oval fish kettles, either with or without covers, [and] skillets of different sizes” as well as “open and close stoves of different sizes, … pestles and mortars; sash weights, and forge hammers of the best quality.”

According to the public historians at Batsto Village in Hammonton, New Jersey, “Charles Read of Burlington constructed the Iron Furnace at Batsto in 1766.  The furnace produced cannons, munitions and other items to aid the patriots during their struggle with the British.  …  Following the Revolutionary War, the Batsto furnace produc[ed] a variety of items such as pots, kettles, stoves, and fireplace backing.”  Unfortunately, the furnace no longer stands today, though visitors may view an ore pile and a nineteenth-century ore boat.

The advertisements in the Pennsylvania Journal demonstrate that the Batsto Furnace produced an array of consumer goods during the first year of the Revolutionary War.  Read likely responded to calls for “domestic manufactures,” goods produced in the colonies as alternatives to items imported from England, that accompanied nonimportation agreements adopted in response to the Stamp Act in 1765 and 1766, the Townshend Acts in the late 1760s, and the Intolerable Acts in 1774.  The eight article of the Continental Association, a nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation pact devised by the Second Continental Congress in October 1774 and adopted throughout the colonies, stated, “That we will, in our several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  The thirteen article address prices: “That all Manufactures of this country to be sold at reasonable Prices, so that no undue Advantage be taken of a future scarcity of Goods.”  Given those provisions, the advertisement for the goods produced at the Batsto Furnace likely resonated with readers.  John Cox, the local agent who sold the pots, kettles, skillets, and other kitchenware in Philadelphia, described them as “much lighter, neater, and superior in quality to any imported from Great-Britain.”  He attempted to assure consumers that they did not need to sacrifice quality when they observed their political principles through buying goods made in the colonies.